9 players who could replace Santi Cazorla

Santi Cazorla is unlikely to ever play football again, let alone pull on the red and white of Arsenal, so finding a replacement for him must be a top priority in the summer.

Thankfully, Arsenal have been on the lookout for a replacement for him for a few windows now, and although they haven’t succeeded in landing any of their targets, there are quite a few around that they are interested in.

Here are 9 of them:

1Pablo Fornals

(Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

Fornals is a rising star in Spain and the 22-year-old is comfortable playing in a deeper role in midfielder or further up the pitch in the number 10 role.

An established first team regular with Malaga before paying his own release clause of £10m to join Villarreal, he has four goals and eight assists this season in 37 games.

Fornals is one of the few young names that come to mind when you think of a direct replacement for our Spanish magician.

His stats this season may not suggest an eye for goal, but he certainly has one and when combined with his direct running, ability to play as a 6, 8 or 10 it’s not hard to see why he has already been given his full senior Spain debut.

He is under contract until 2022 so he won’t come cheap and it’s unlikely he will switch again just one summer after already moving back to the club where his career started but Arsenal should certainly consider making a move.